Sous Vide

God, I'd love to taste it so much. I'm shocked that you can cook SO beautifully

The beauty of SV cooking is that it’s actually easy and reduces stress related to timing. Most things cooked Sous vide have fairly flexible time parameters. Example, if I’m grilling a steak in the conventional way I’ll go by experience in how long to grill each side and then use an instant read thermometer to confirm the desired internal temperature but there’s a whole lot of variables. Thickness of steak, cut of meat (fatty or lean), monitoring multiple steaks, starting internal temperature (room temperature or straight from the refrigerator), temperature of grill, ambient air temperature (winter or summer) etc. worst case I overdo it which bums everyone. (My wife won’t let me near a rack of lamb except to eat it) now with sous vide I just season the steaks, vacuum seal them and put them in the water, usually at 115F. I can leave them in there for 2-3 hours so if for example, I’m having guests and they’re late, no big deal. Once everything else and everyone is ready I’ll take the steaks out of the SV, cut them out of the bag, let them sit for 5 minutes then sear them for 1 minute a side and serve. You don’t have to rent with foil and rest the meat with sous vide. It’s a lot less stressful a process than grilling everything at the last minute and if , heaven forbid, someone wants their steak well done I just invite them to leave. Kidding, I’ll just sear their steak a bit longer so everyone is happy.

The result is perfectly done steaks with better than any steakhouse taste.

I love using SV for filet mignon. I use the same method... we like ours just pink in the middle so I SV at 133F ... the time doesn't really matter that much as you stated. Then I sear them for a minute or so per side.... getting a nice, brown sear.... perfect every time. 

I have been unsuccessful with a few things...  I have a Big Green Egg and I have better luck just slow cooking my pork shoulders and Brisket without the SV.

I love using SV for filet mignon. I use the same method... we like ours just pink in the middle so I SV at 133F ... the time doesn't really matter that much as you stated. Then I sear them for a minute or so per side.... getting a nice, brown sear.... perfect every time. 

I have been unsuccessful with a few things...  I have a Big Green Egg and I have better luck just slow cooking my pork shoulders and Brisket without the SV.

I’m going to try SV brisket soon. I have some in the freezer. I figure a24-36 hour SV then a couple of his in the smoker. I have a Webber Smokey mountain cooker and a small pellet smoker. While I actually enjoy a day long smoke in one of those units I’d like to see how SV compares. Especially with those dry as wood chips brisket flats. I’m going to use a point to start. You can’t mess those up.

I love using SV for filet mignon. I use the same method... we like ours just pink in the middle so I SV at 133F ... the time doesn't really matter that much as you stated. Then I sear them for a minute or so per side.... getting a nice, brown sear.... perfect every time. 

I have been unsuccessful with a few things...  I have a Big Green Egg and I have better luck just slow cooking my pork shoulders and Brisket without the SV.

I’m going to try SV brisket soon. I have some in the freezer. I figure a24-36 hour SV then a couple of his in the smoker. I have a Webber Smokey mountain cooker and a small pellet smoker. While I actually enjoy a day long smoke in one of those units I’d like to see how SV compares. Especially with those dry as wood chips brisket flats. I’m going to use a point to start. You can’t mess those up.

I'm excited to hear how this turns out Mark! I've always wanted to try doing a Sous Vide Brisket.

I’m going to try SV brisket soon. I have some in the freezer. I figure a24-36 hour SV then a couple of his in the smoker.

Fresh or corned I've SV brisket at 150°F for 36 - 48 hours.

Just a note on general timing for SV. It's not totally correct that time isn't that important. There is a minimum time and that is extremely important. Worse case, take a steak out of the freezer put it in the bag and put it in the SV bath frozen. It takes time for the steak to thaw through to the center, then time for it to pasteurize, then to cook. These minimum times are critical so as not to potentially get sick. Factors affecting the time? Thickness of the meat, temp' of the bath. There are formulas to figure it out but thankfully there are also charts that make it super simple. Where the time isn't critical is on the finished end of the cooking. As long doesn't go wild there the result will be fine.

Why does SV work? Why don't we get sick from it? After all, traditional cooking uses hi temps to kill the bugs in the meat and SV doesn't. It should spoil right? Well, it's time and temp' that kills bacteria. We don't feel much like breeding at 130° and neither do bacteria. Stay in 130° long enough and we die, so do the bacteria. There must be a lower limit to the temp' but I don't know it. The charts won't list an unsafe time/temp combo. I know it's not 129°F or the wife and I would be long dead. But time and temp' is exactly what I was discussing above. Too short a time at too low a temp and the meat might not be pasteurized. (I don't think that's the right word, but it's the one I'm using.)

FWIW, I finish off SV meat, beef, lamb, and such with a butane torch after putting a solution of Dextrose (corn syrup would also work) and sodium bicarb. The sugar reacts under heat with the protein to get the Maillard reaction (good grilled taste) and the base promotes browning. Propane might give the meat a rotten egg taste, but I never tried propane.

One way to cut the time required for a SV steak for instance is to SV it for the correct time as if you are going to eat it immediately. But don't. Put it in ice water to cool it down rapidly, still in the bag. Then freeze it. When you want a quick steak just thaw it at the temp' it was cooked at and bring it up to, in the case of a seatk for us, 129°F, when complete finish it off however you want. I dislike SVing one steak at a time, But I don't mind SVing 20 or 30 and then use the ice water/freezing trick. Look in my freezer and you'll find quite a few steaks ready at a moments notice.

BTW, lamb steaks are also great cooked SV. I've cooked lamb steaks for folks who don't like lamb and they liked it.

I've never cooked pork or chicken SV and one might think it would turn chicken into a ptomaine factory, but no, it works fine. So I've been told. The person telling me had done it and was still alive. I just don't know how to finish it and like crisp skin. Poached chicken doesn't do much for me.

I checked the recipe that I plan to use for Sous Vide brisket and the temperature and time recommendations are to cook for 36 to 72 hours for brisket with a tender, steak-like texture, or 155°F for 24 to 36 hours for more traditionally textured brisket that falls apart when you pull at it.  I figure Ill do it at 155 for 36 hours.  I also think I'll finish it on a pellet smoker but that depends on atmospheric conditions at the time.

https://www.seriouseats.com/sous-vide-ba...xas-recipe

I’m going to try SV brisket soon. I have some in the freezer. I figure a24-36 hour SV then a couple of his in the smoker.

Fresh or corned I've SV brisket at 150°F for 36 - 48 hours.

Just a note on general timing for SV. It's not totally correct that time isn't that important. There is a minimum time and that is extremely important. Worse case, take a steak out of the freezer put it in the bag and put it in the SV bath frozen. It takes time for the steak to thaw through to the center, then time for it to pasteurize, then to cook. These minimum times are critical so as not to potentially get sick. Factors affecting the time? Thickness of the meat, temp' of the bath. There are formulas to figure it out but thankfully there are also charts that make it super simple. Where the time isn't critical is on the finished end of the cooking. As long doesn't go wild there the result will be fine.

Why does SV work? Why don't we get sick from it? After all, traditional cooking uses hi temps to kill the bugs in the meat and SV doesn't. It should spoil right? Well, it's time and temp' that kills bacteria. We don't feel much like breeding at 130° and neither do bacteria. Stay in 130° long enough and we die, so do the bacteria. There must be a lower limit to the temp' but I don't know it. The charts won't list an unsafe time/temp combo. I know it's not 129°F or the wife and I would be long dead. But time and temp' is exactly what I was discussing above. Too short a time at too low a temp and the meat might not be pasteurized. (I don't think that's the right word, but it's the one I'm using.)

FWIW, I finish off SV meat, beef, lamb, and such with a butane torch after putting a solution of Dextrose (corn syrup would also work) and sodium bicarb. The sugar reacts under heat with the protein to get the Maillard reaction (good grilled taste) and the base promotes browning. Propane might give the meat a rotten egg taste, but I never tried propane.

I didn't mean to suggest that time is irrelevant  - just that there wasn't the same time pressure to get something off the grill at a precise temperature or risk ruining the finished product.  Obviously time is important.  Last week my wife took some chicken breast out of the freezer to use in one of her spectacular stir fry dishes but things got in the way and timing wasn't working out so rather than leave the raw chicken sitting around for an extra couple of days we brined its, vacuum sealed it and cooked (poached) it SV at 150 for 90 minutes then plunged it into an ice bath for an hour then into the fridge.  When we used it a coupe of days later in the stir fry it was excellent - just tossed the chicken chunks in at the end to heat it through because it was already cooked.  In the case of chicken breast my cookbook says 90 minutes it the time to use but you can adjust the tempreture depending on the texture you want.  140 gives you rubbery, sashimi like texture, 145.5 juicy and soft, 150 tender and juicy, 155 dry and chewy and 160 for chalky and sandy.  Tender and juicy sounded right to me.  if you cooked chick in the pan to 140 it probably wouldn't be safe to eat because it won't have spent enough time at 140 to kill bacteria but 140 for 90 minutes will kill the bacteria so its safe to eat.

I just didn't want folks to get the wrong idea Marko. I've run into people doing SV with wildly short and dangerous cooking times.

I just didn't want folks to get the wrong idea Marko. I've run into people doing SV with wildly short and dangerous cooking times.

I would hope that anyone that decides to get into Sous Vide cooking would do some research on food safety.  

Apart from fantastic perfectly done steaks and really good results with cheaper cuts of roast beef, I think the Sous Vide truly shines cooking seafood.  No more dry overcooked salmon. Despite the fact that my wife generally does an excellent job with fish - expert with the instant read thermometer, the Sous Vide takes all the risk out of it.  Poached salmon at 125F for 30-45 minutes is perfect, moist and juicy.  You can torch a glaze on it after without overdoing it as long as you dont hold the torch on it too long.  Shrimp, scallops all perfect and tender.  I've done some tuna and again there is a range of temperatures you can target depending on what you want the finished product to be, however, we like 105F for 30-45 minutes with or without a quick sear after gives a sashimi like texture.  We use frozen tuna.  We did lobster tails SV and it was perfect.  Lobster is easily overdone and then its tough and chewy.  Had steak and lobster one night then lobster rolls for dinner the next day with the leftover.  

I'm planning to make a Cuban Black Beans recipe that includes a smoked ham hock.  It should be good.  That one I won't be able to use the vacuum sealer on because its so wet - double ziplock bags.